In the mood for Pretzels
by twbird18
Summary: Something happens between S3&4 for Hardison to think he should get a hug in the Long Way down.
1. Chapter 1

It's really hot when Hardison does exciting things with me like jumping on a train, running on a train, and well most of all blowing up a train that I just kind of – as always – blurt out what I'm thinking, that I was in the mood for "Pretzels". It was true but not normally the kind of thing I would announce. Luckily we were still in the middle of a con and I didn't have to deal with it right then.

When we finish with the San Lorenzo job, Nate orders all of us to take 2 weeks off. Which seems ridiculous to me, 2 weeks is hardly no time at all. I don't really know what that is supposed to accomplish, but I do know that even though Hardison will probably look for me, there is no way that he could find me in that amount of time. He couldn't even find me in 6 months and I know that he looked for me that entire time. I decide I won't make him look for me this time. Otherwise, how will I ever get pretzels?

I show up at Hardison's apartment window and instead of letting myself in, I do the polite thing and tap on the window. Hardison doesn't startle as he has gotten used to my showing up here at random times. Instead, he walks over and opens the window for me.

"Parker, what are you doing here? We're supposed to be taking a break for like 9 more days" Hardison says.

"That's just silly. Plus, I never got my pretzels" I announce. "I just thought we have some free time without everyone else around, maybe we could…" I stop talking. It's too much openness for me. I just stand that hoping Hardison knows what I mean like he usually does.

"Yeah, it might be a good time to figure some things out" Hardison says grabbing my hand.

I start to pull away my hand away, but stop when I realize that he's just tugging me further into the apartment. He points me towards the couch, "Pick out the movie while I get us some popcorn and soda?" I head to couch somewhat confused. We've watched a million movies together here. I'm not sure how this is going to get us anywhere, but I trust Hardison to know what to do.

I'm sitting on what I think of as my side of the couch, having selected a movie when Hardison comes in and sits on the opposite side, but instead of putting the popcorn between us like normal he puts it in his lap. The movie starts and I feel him tap my shoulder, his arm across the back of the couch. "Why don't you come over here where you can reach the popcorn?" Hardison asks.

I slide across the couch to sit closer to him and grab a little popcorn. Then I feel his arm across my shoulders and his hand curling around my shoulder. I tense up for a second and then force myself to relax reminding myself that I wanted this, to be closer to him. Before the movie is half over, I find myself curled into Alec, my head on his shoulder and an arm across his stomach after he moved the popcorn. Eventually, I fall asleep. I've never, at least not as long as I can remember, fallen asleep on someone else.

I feel myself being gently shaken awake and jump away, not sure what was happening immediately. Hardison grabs me by the shoulders, "Parker, it's just me. You're safe here."

I sit still and look at Hardison, not pulling way, "I don't sleep…"  
"Parker, it's fine, you don't have to explain." Hardison lets go of me and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.

I remember why I came in the first place and grin at Hardison who returns my smile. I lean in and kiss him. Lightly at first and then more intimately, my arms sliding around his neck. I feel his arms go around my waist pulling me closer. He tastes of soda, popcorn, gummy frogs and…home, I think. After a second because I'm just not ready for anything more yet, I pull away ending up by the window, but instead of jumping out like normal I look back at him smiling. "Goodnight Alec, thanks for the pretzels" I say jumping out the window.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple of days later, I get a text message from Hardison, _Hangout tomorrow? _Assuming he's bored and needs someone to play games with I quickly sent back _Sure, I'll be there for lunch._ Plus, I kind of missed him. It's been a while since we went more than 2 days without seeing each other. It's kind of weird. I'm looking forward to the team getting back together. It isn't as easy to entertain myself anymore.

I walk into Hardison's apartment, having dropped out of the vent and tap him on the shoulder where he sits playing League of Legends – which is still weird that I have spent enough time around him to recognize these games by name – with his headphones on causing him to almost fall out of his chair. I snicker, scaring Hardison never gets old. Plus I don't feel bad since I told him I was coming over for lunch and it's just before 1. He should have expected me.

"Hey, girl," Hardison stammers "I really wish you wouldn't do that."

"I wasn't even quiet" I stated. "Anyone could have done that with your headphones on, you don't hear anything. Plus, you knew I was coming. I mean seriously who did you think was tapping your shoulder?"

"I don't know" Hardison says removing his headset and clicking out of the game. "I'm all finished anyway."

"So, what's for lunch?" I ask.

"I thought we could walk over to the Commons. There's one of those festivals they have all the time and get some street food. Ok?"

"Sure." I've never been to one of the festivals before. It should be fun.

We walk the couple blocks over to the park. Hardison making me walk there like a normal person would, but it's not too bad since I have him to entertain me. When we get to the park, we wander through the crowds and I spot cotton candy. I don't even have to ask, Hardison just steers us in that direction and gets in line. "What kind do you want?" he asks.

"The pink one. It's my favorite" I say grinning when he hands me one and gets one for himself. We walk the paths looking at street art and watching the people. Eventually, we get some "real" lunch since Eliot would be disappointed if we just had cotton candy for lunch. We take a ride on the Carousel, which I've never done before and then I convince him to take me on the swan boats. I've always wanted to do that and it was pretty fun. As we end up back where we started, Hardison stops in front of me and says, "I would offer to walk you home, but I don't know where you're staying at these days…"  
"You…you don't know where I live at, like for real?" I can't believe he doesn't know that. All he does is track us.

"You're pretty good at what you do and I figured if you wanted us to know you would tell us so I never looked too hard." He says looking away, a slight flush on his cheeks like he's embarrassed to admit this fact.

"Oh," I say, "it's not really a secret, I just figured you guys knew. I mean you know where everyone else lives. I have a place not too far from here I spend some of my time at if you want to go there. We could get some Chinese on the way if you want to have dinner."

"Sounds good" Hardison says eagerly. "Wait, like a real place? Not a warehouse?"

"Yes, like a real place. I've been told it's nice" I say shyly.

"By who? Who's been to your place?" he asks surprised.

"Well, Alice needed a place for Peggy to go and sometimes the book group meets at my house. I mean everyone has to host the group so I couldn't….." I trail off before trying again. "I mean anyway, so I got a real apartment and put stuff in it so Alice could be normal and I kind of liked it so I stay there sometimes. It's no big deal" I say in a rush.

"Parker, Alice is you and it's cool if you want to stay in a 'normal' "he says with air quotes "place. You should stay wherever you want. And you'll be safe, we'll all make sure, no matter where that place is. Plus I'm not going to lie, the warehouse isn't very homey. Even though it is very you. I could see why you liked it."

We walked in silence for a while before I pulled him into a Chinese restaurant and ordered our favorite things. Pulling him outside, I tell him that it's just around the corner. Hardison carries the bag of Chinese in one hand, but doesn't let go of the hand that I tugged him outside with. It feels kind of nice and I thread my fingers through his, plus I'm serious about the corner thing. It's like 20 steps away.

We take the elevator up to the top floor, something I've only done 1 other time, when I legitimately bought the place….which was weird. I open the door flicking off the alarm before it can go off and rearming it for us to be inside. Hardison just kind of stops looking around at my loft apartment.

"Wow, this place is pretty cool" Hardison exclaims.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice. I even have rooftop access from the loft. Entire roof is mine." I say looking around at the loft condo that has a huge high rafter ceiling with skylights. My bed is clearly visible from the door and there is enough furniture in the living room to host the book club, complete with a TV and my own Wii. Even though you can't see it, all my climbing gear and some practice stuff is in the loft behind the bed where you can see it. Since, the bathrooms downstairs, I never have to worry about anyone going up there. Also, since I'm the only one with rooftop access, I have a bunch of rappelling gear on the roof where I can practice.

I grab the bags sitting them on the island in the kitchen and dishing up food on paper plates as Hardison sits on the couch. I hand him a plate and settle into my very comfortable couch next to him flipping on the TV. We eat in companionable silence watching the show I put on. When we finish eating, I dump the plates into the trash before sitting back on the couch facing Hardison, my legs tucked under me. "So…." I say.

Hardison stops looking at the TV and looks at me. I look at him, licking my lips – I have learned something from Sophie it turns out and watching his gaze transfer down. He leans in kissing me tentatively like he thinks I'm going to evaporate. I press in closer to him and next thing I know, I'm straddling him arms around his neck, his arms at my waist in what I assume from the movies is a full-fledged make out session. Living mostly in warehouses, I've obviously never invited anyone back to my place before. It's nice, having Hardison here. I like it and I like kissing Hardison. It felt good. I felt warm and tingly where Hardison touched me. I felt lov…

I hopped off of Hardison's lap. "I just remembered…"

"Wait, Mama," Hardison says stopping me and grabbing my hands "you don't need an excuse to stop. You don't even need to have a reason other than you want to or need to stop whatever we're doing. All you have to do stop. It's fine. Whatever you need baby."

That's when we both hear our phones buzzing. There's a text from Nate telling us all to come to the mountain 5 days before we were supposed to meet up again. Hardison takes off to pack with a quick kiss goodbye. I guess it's good. I feel better when everyone else is around and maybe I can corner Sophie to ask her some questions. I still don't really know what Hardison and I are doing.

A/N: I know Peggy doesn't come back to the show until late, but I wanted to give Parker a reason to have a real apartment. I think she would get what she considered to be a 'normal' place is she felt like there was a reason to do so. And I totally think that something like this happens between season 3 & 4, but Nate calls them all back early so neither Parker nor Hardison really know where they stand with each other. Hence the 2 awkward Hardison attempts at hugs and wanting to go with her.


End file.
